Anyone heard of/ used Lexia reading programme

[SocialButterfly]

DD (7) has been put on the Lexia Reading Programme and I wondered if anyone had any experiences of how good it was or if their DC made progress on it?

DD is quite far behind, has dyslexia and auditory processing disorder.

Yes we use Lexia it can be very effective if it is used by an experienced member of staff

It wouldn't be my first choice for a child with APD

Yes we use Lexia it can be very effective if it is used by an experienced member of staff

I think I'd rather have the experienced member of staff do some direct one to one teaching with a struggling child...

If only we had the staffing levels to do that it would be my choice too.
As a complete package I'm not a fan ... I think it does work with our older children who have a good basic phonics knowledge but it can be confusing for the younger children as it isn't SP (did you know they are marketing Lexia as a rival to RWI? )

Thanks guys. They are being to to use it independently without a staff member, we have just been given a home log in as they dont have time to do it everyday at school. I'm not overly impressed but she is still on the foundation level.

It's Orton Gillingham based, which is one reason that I don't like it! OG puts in so many unnecessary steps, like learning 'blends' (and 'sight words ).

OG are fighting SP very hard. They're trying to claim that it was the first SP programme (as you know...) The Lexia rep tried very hard to tell me that Lexia was an SP programme, but, sadly for him, I knew he was talking nonsense.

I think it is a shame that vested interests come before what is best for teaching all children to read but companies have a lot of money tied up in OG.

I've just bought Nessie Games Player for a couple of children who have some time to fill. That's OG based, too, but I can be a bit selective about how they use it. I wouldn't buy the whole programme, though.

Sorry, before I get flamed...please replace 'teaching all children' with 'teaching most children'

:)

Very surprised you bought Nessie and very surprised that KS3 students have 'time to fill'

Is that when they're not in class because they can't access the curriculum?

OP - Sound Reading is an interesting program for children with dyslexia and APD.

I haven't managed to try it yet though, so am only going on what it says on the website :)

I wasn't involved in the purchase and agree about the unnecessary steps which is why I said it works if an experienced member of staff is in control (to manually place children rather than follow the whole thing blindly). I find the Americanisms confusing for some children too.

Well not that positive then!! Oh dear, I guess I'll have to see how it goes

Don't knock Nessie too much. I use it a lot in one-to-one teaching ( I have the entire learning programme) but I do select what I use and don't just follow it in it's entirety. I find it is great for KS2 children when some phonic stuff starts to be a bit babyish in style. The animated phonics are funny which helps them to be memorable. It doesn't cover all graphemes, but it does do a lot and then I find that children enjoy making up their own mnemonics for the others ("scare the parents" for "are") and I do a similar style flashcard for these. The games are fun and the children enjoy collecting "nuggets" to spend on the fairground games. I like the card games too (although of course once you got the idea you could always make your own versions of these)
I use it as one way of putting some light and shade into lessons (as I usually teach for an hour) whilst still providing useful practice with a grapheme. You can record your own words to play with the games which can be really useful (eg when I had a child who kept confusing ew and aw I could record a mixture of words with these graphemes for the games so they had to keep focussing on the difference between the two). The children really like it and often ask to use it too.

ooops - "its entirety" of course!!

I'm not knocking Nessie completely, I just think it needs to be used selectively if you teach SP rather than OG.
I use Freshstart, so lessons are varied anyway...

IB. Child in question is disapplied from MFL. I, regrettably, cannot take him for the 4/5 'free' lessons a fortnight this involves. I have to find purposeful work for him which can be 'overseen' by a non phonics trained member of staff.

He also does some AcceleeReadAcceleeWrite exercises in that time. It's a nice little programme and one of the few IT based ones that I find useful!

I like AcceleRead/AcceleWrite. I think it's really good.

I don't like the idea of an 11 year old being parked in front of Nessie because he can't learn French. :(

Can't he either just read to his TA or do his homework? Can't she help him with reading he has to do for other subjects?

I would not be at all happy if that was my DD (if she ever makes it to secondary school).

IB

What TA? What homework? (he was excused that, too, for quite a long while...but I notice that he's doing it now)

Believe me when I say that he is well supported through differentiation in mainstream lessons, and use of HLTAs in core subjects, and is actually making good progress.

He likes being parked in front of Nessie, or Maths games.... I think he also does other 'stuff' too, like work on SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning). He has also learned to read reasonably well (I'm very proud of him )and will leave us better equipped for life than his very poor reading skills at the end of KS2 might have indicated.

:(

Why does he not have homework? Is he not sitting the same GCSEs as everyone else?

By TA I meant whoever is overseeing him. Is he just parked in a room with all the other kids who can't access the curriculum?

Learning to read 'reasonably' well isn't good enough :(

Sounds to me like lots of low expectations at play. But then I don't know the kid, you do.

I'm sorry I've probably offended you again. :(. I don't mean to.

I just keep seeing all these very clever kids who's whole life has been ruined because of their 'dyslexia'. Who's whole life has been ruined because they can't read and write properly so instead have to choose a job which doesn't require reading and writing.

Like my DH. Who's a mechanic. When he should have been an engineer. :(

And of course like DD who's life will be dreadfully hampered, no matter how many times teachers insist she's making good progress (and is happy).

Secondary schools receive a much smaller SEN budget per pupil than primaries and the LEA contribution toward a child with statement is a fraction of that the receive in Primary school.

No, you haven't offended me, IB. I have huge admiration for your determination to do the very best you can for your dd and I do understand that things can look very different from the other side of the school gate.

I'm sorry that you think that learning to read 'reasonably well' isn't good enough. It really is a fact that if a child doesn't learn to read at primary they fall further and further behind their peers and that much of what I can do in Y7 and beyond is narrowing rather than closing the gap. If a child has masses of support and help at home they can achieve more on the reading front, but when they come from a household where reading is more of a necessary evil than a skill to be enjoyed in its own right there is not much more I can do beyond give them the basics and as much practice as possible. As I work in an area of high social deprivation there is a lot of the latter to contend with.

When I start working with a child I not only have to fill in all the gaps (and sometimes start from very near the beginning) but I have to try to eradicate 6 years worth of poor reading habits and often a measure of psychological damage. Which means counteracting physical bad habits, notably 'glance and guess', and work with attentional deficits (as likely to be caused by the boredom of not being able to access the curriculum for 6 years as by any 'deficit' within the child), poor short term/working memory, and disinclination to engage because of fear of 'failing' yet again.

I can't even give the children the sort of intensive daily work which they would get in primary, there are too many of them. A primary may have 2 or 3 real strugglers. I get at least half of them from all of our 'feeder' primaries (2 secondaries in our area) so I have rather more to work with than would one primary school.

So, 'reasonably well' for a child who has all these disavantages (and of whom the primary has more or less said he will never 'get it') is, for me, an achievement.

I just keep seeing all these very clever kids who's whole life has been ruined because of their 'dyslexia'.

But not all children are 'very clever kids'. They can just be lovely, amusing, interesting,ordinary, potential solid citizens who will never achieve much in the the academic line (and don't want to), but who will have a better life chance because they can read reasonably well...

Yes, you're right, I'm not used to kids who aren't clever, and forget that most kids are (by defn) average

You have however just reinforced what I always knew. If DD doesn't learn to read and write properly in primary there is no point in sending her to secondary. The kind of thing you are offering is not acceptable to me.

But, it's going to be fine. DD will be reading by Easter, and then I'll share what I've learned with you, and you'll be able to help a few kids a bit more than you currently can. :)

And it least some good will come out of the last 4 horrible years.

Hope so, Indigobell

If DD doesn't learn to read and write properly in primary there is no point in sending her to secondary. The kind of thing you are offering is not acceptable to me.

I think you are possibly right. But it will be hard work to compensate for the 'word gap'. Children who learned to read in KS1 will have read thousands (if not millions) of words more than your dd. It has all sorts of implications for cognitive growth.

I'll be very interested to hear what you have learned. I really can teach children to read, it's narrowing the gap as fast as possible that is the problem.

I have taught a few 'bright' children who then 'catch up' far more quickly than the *average.

*I really hope that you don't see use of the term 'average' as being in any way derogatory or implying less than high expectations of individual children.